Air cooled artificial ice rink

ABSTRACT

An air cooled artificial ice rink including a plurality of independent modular units, each provided with a similar and removable refrigerator.

United States Patent Kuebier June 13, 1972 [54] AIR COOLED ARTIFICIAL ICE RINK 2,591,178 4/1952 McAdam ..62/449 0 2,957,319 10/1960 Trau1sen.... ...62/235 [72] s'egfr'ed Kmble'i Uberlmgen, Germany 2,996,896 8/1961 Johnson ..62/235 7 3] Assignee gl;lI-::af;leb|er 8: Co Smgen/Hohentvnel, FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 2 239 6/1875 Great Britain ..62/235 22 F1 d. Oct. 23 1970 1 4,515 10/1881 Great Britain.... ...62/235 [21] App]. No.: 83,503 51,480 12/1911 Austria ..62/235 30 A 1 D m Primary Examiner--William.l. Wye Forelgn pp [ca [on Prion y a AltorneyBums, Doane, Swecker & Mathis Oct. 24, 1969 Germany ..P 19 53 591.2

[57] ABSTRACT [52] US. Cl ..62/235, 62/449, 62/298 [51] C] An a1r cooled artificial ice rlnk including a plurahty of 1nde- 5 pendent modular units, each provided with a similar and removable refrigerator. [56] References 7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,703,318 2/1929 Muffly ..62/449 GENERAL BACKGROUND, OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION The invention relates to an artificial ice rink with a support slab for the ice rink lying horizontally and supported at a distance above a part of the ground and an enclosed hollow refrigeration space. The sides of walls close the hollow space. A refrigerator, with a circulating blower, draws air from a portion of the hollow space and returns it again to this hollow space after guiding it through its heat exchanger in a cooled state.

Prior artificial ice rinks are adapted in their spatial design, their thermal calculation, and in their construction to the existing conditions and are then constructed. Their size and capacity are thus fixed and can no longer be changed. Formerly such ice rinks had their justification since ice rinks couldbe constructed only by larger and financially strong winter sport resorts or cities which were able to produce the financial means required for the construction as well as for the maintenance of large installations. With an increasing popularity of winter sports among a broad strata of the population, and with the opening up ice skating to wide circles of the population, as well as of the further spreading of other types of sports on ice, such as curling, the problems involved in the construction of ice rinks has also become acute for small, developing but still financially weak communities.

Thus, the invention is based on the task of producing an ice rink, of the above mentioned type, which is inexpensive to construct and operate, and which can be easily built again disassembled, so that it possibly can be built on a sport arena or a playground not needed in winter and where it can again be disassembled in summer. The elements of this rink can also be stored in a space saving manner and without special care. This, above all, makes possible an enlargement of the rink, adapted'to the pertinent conditions, so that it is possible to start with a small installation at first in case the means available are still small. However, the elements of the rink will not be lost later, but will remain part of a larger installation whenever enlargement can be made.

Finally, the susceptibility of rinks of this invention to breakdowns is to be decreased or in the case of a breakdown, which actually can occur only in the refrigerator, the time of non-use will be as short and the work as little as possible. Further, repairs will be such that they may be carried out by laymen until the installation is again fully operable.

This task, in the case of an ice rink of the above mentioned type, is solved through the fact that the surface of the ice rink is composed of several completely equal and modular units, each consisting of a refrigerator, standard type, of a size of the surface adapted to said refrigerator, and of a number of supports. These units represent and define, in relation to each other, completely closed chambers. The support of the carrying slab of the skating rink of each unit is provided by pillars inserted at least as deep as the freezing depth of subsoil.

A small community therefore can first of all procure a number of such units to fit their needs, space and money available, and without the unit procured first becoming worthless in a later expansion of the installation.

The construction of the individual units is particularly simple since there is no need to prepare a foundation at a considerable cost. Thus, the support pillars can be placed, for example, in the soil of a village common, of a sports arena or playground, and can be removed again in the case of need during the summer. Since the supports are lowered deep enough into the soil, below the maximum freezing depth, a soil freeze induced twisting of the ice rink carrying slab is impossible. The unit itself will not have been damaged.

Stand-by storage is likewise simple. Since the refrigerators of all units are interchangeable, only one reserve unit needs to be placed in readiness, which can be exchanged quickly and easily and even by laymen in the case of an emergency with the damaged unit. If no reserve refrigerator is available, then it 'is still possible to exchange the defective refrigerator for one from a unit at the end of the ice rink, whereby it will then be necessary to close only a small portion of the rink, the remaining parts, however, still being operable.

For special occasions it is even possible, with a relatively small expenditure, to convert an ice rink of approximately square dimensions for ordinary skating or for ice hockey into an elongated shape through a different connection of the units in order to reshape it for curling.

It will be advantageous to use the refrigerator exchangeably as a slide-in" construction unit at a place in the front wall of any unit. Since the various zones of the carrying slab of the ice rink of any unit will then have differing distances from the refrigerator, it will be advantageous to use deflecting surfaces for the guidance of the air flow in the hollow space of every unit, which deflecting surfaces can be attached at the supporting pillars.

One will achieve an inexpensive and easy to assemble and disassemble construction of the ice rink if the supporting surface of the ice rink is composed of a number of individual, asbestos cement units which are sealed against each other with silicone rubber.

In order to not make the mounting of the support pillars too complicated, preferably they are adjustable in height so that after their insertion into the soil they will permit a precise leveling of the carrying slab of the ice rink. Also, changes which might occur in the course of use, and in the case of unfavorable conditions of the soil, can in this adjustable way be compensated for by a suitable adjustment in height of the supports.

DRAWINGS From the description which will now follow of an embodiment shown in the drawing by way of example, the invention with its advantages, characteristics and details will again become clear.

FIG. 1 shows a cross section through a unit of the artificial ice rink according to the invention following line I-I in FIG. 2 and FIG. 2 shows a top view of the ice rink unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In a natural and not necessarily flat soil l0, framing supports 11 are inserted at certain distances, whose arrangement can be selected in any desired manner. For practical purposes, these supports can be varied as to height.

On these supports 11 which protrude about 20 to cm above the level of the soil, thin walled slabs 12 have been placed which can consist of concrete, metal, plastic or preferably asbestos cement. These slabs, if necessary, are connected with the supports 11 and are edge sealed in regard to one another with some elastic masses, such as silicone rubber. It is also possible to not use this sealing at all, since in the case of previous cooling of the slabs the sprayed on water will freeze in the joints and will itself have a sealing effect. The supports can also be firmly connected with the slabs. For reasons of heat transfer of the air used for cooling, it may be effective to make the undersides of the slabs uneven, and to provide means as for example, ribs or similar things.

The side walls of the space 13 located between the soil l0 and the carrying slabs 12 for the ice rink are closed by means of side walls 14, which have as low as possible a heat transmission coefficient. For the purpose of insulation, one can also throw on earth, peat litter, sawdust or similar things from the outside, as shown at 15.

In a front wall of the unit, an opening 14a has been provided, into which a refrigerator, designated as a whole with 16, and which is developed as a complete standard unit, is so positioned that the vaporizer part 17 of the refrigerator and the circulating blower 18 will be located in the space below the carrying slab for the ice rink.

The compressor 19 as well as the liquefying part 20 of the refrigerator, operating in a closed circuit, are located outside the hollow space 13.

Inside the hollow space 13, generally speaking, air deflecting surfaces 21 have been provided which will force a certain guidance of the air within the hollow space, so that all areas of every chamber closed within itself are fed approximately evenly with air emerging from the refrigerator 16, as indicated by arrows 22.

Such simple units which are complete within themselves may be put together in any desired number into several units free of cracks, as indicated in FIG. 2 by the enlarged part drawn in a broken line, so that it will be possible to construct surfaces of ice rinks which are as large as desired and which are sufficiently large for all sport requirements just with several of such basic standard types. The enlargement 23 may be accomplished not only by placing units one beside the other but also by placing them opposite each other on their narrow side.

In the drawing one can clearly see the sheet of ice 24 which covers all the individual slabs in a closed cover.

lclaim:

1. An artificial ice rink comprising:

a plurality of mutually contiguous refrigeration units, each such unit being independently operable and comprising a plurality of support means embedded in and projecting upwardly from foundation means,

side wall means peripherally encircling a hollow space occupied by said support means,

slab means carried by said support means and cooperating with said wall means to define said hollow space disposed beneath said slab means,

refrigerating means inserted through and connected with said wall means and operable to circulate air within said space consecutively through an air refrigerating heat exchanger portion of said refrigeration means and through said space;

said support means of said refrigeration units comprising pillars inserted into soil providing said foundation means, with said pillars being inserted at least as deep as the anticipated freezing line in said soil;

said side wall means of said refrigeration units being operable to permit each said refrigeration unit to be disposed contiguous with an adjacent refrigeration unit, with the slab means of each said refrigeration unit and the slab means of at least another adjacent refrigeration unit supporting a continuous ice body;

said refrigerating means of said refrigeration units being mutually interchangeable, with each such refrigerating means being operable to be slid through a said side wall means into operating position.

2. An artificial ice rink as described in claim 1 wherein:

each refrigerating means projects partially into a respective hollow space.

3. An ice rink as described in claim 2 further comprising:

deflecting surface means included within each said hollow space, supported by at least some of said pillars, and operable to guide refrigerated air in a generally uniform manner throughout a said hollow space.

4. An ice rink as described in claim 3 wherein each said slab means comprises:

a plurality of mutually adjacent slabs; and

silicone rubber seal means between edges of said cement slabs.

5. An ice rink as described in claim 4 wherein said asbestoscement slabs include:

heat exchanging ribs carried on the underside thereof and projecting downwardly into heat exchanging relation with refrigerated air in a said hollow space.

6. An ice rink as described in claim 5 including:

means associated with at least some of said pillars and operable to selectively adjust the height thereof.

7. An artificial ice rink comprising; I a plurality of support means em edded in and pro ecting upwardly from foundation means;

side wall means peripherally encircling a hollow space occupied by said support means;

slab means carried by said support means and cooperating with said wall means to define said hollow space disposed beneath said slab means; and

refrigerating means inserted through and connected with said wall means and operable to circulate air within said space consecutively through an air refrigerating heat exchanger portion of said refrigeration means and through said space;

said support means of said refrigeration unit comprising pillars inserted into soil providing said foundation means, with said pillars being inserted at least as deep as the anticipated freezing line in said soil. 

1. An artificial ice rink comprising: a plurality of mutually contiguous refrigeration units, each such unit being independently operable and comprising a plurality of support means embedded in and projecting upwardly from foundation means, side wall means peripherally encircling a hollow space occupied by said support means, slab means carried by said support means and cooperating with said wall means to define said hollow space disposed beneath said slab means, refrigerating means inserted through and connected with said wall means and operable to circulate air within said space consecutively through an air refrigerating heat exchanger portion of said refrigeration means and through said space; said support means of said refrigeration units comprising pillars inserted into soil providing said foundation means, with said pillars being inserted at least as deep as the anticipated freezing line in said soil; said side wall means of said refrigeration units being operable to permit each said refrigeration unit to be disposed contiguous with an adjacent refrigeration unit, with the slab means of each said refrigeration unit and the slab means of at least another adjacent refrigeration unit supporting a continuous ice body; said refrigerating means of said refrigeration units being mutually interchangeable, with each such refrigerating means being operable to be slid through a said side wall means into operating position.
 2. An artificial ice rink as described in claim 1 wherein: each refrigerating means projects partially into a respective hollow space.
 3. An ice rink as described in claim 2 further comprising: deflecting surface means included within each said hollow space, supported by at least some of said pillars, and operable to guide refrigerated air in a generally uniform manner throughout a said hollow space.
 4. An ice rink as described in claim 3 wherein each said slab means comprises: a plurality of mutually adjacent slabs; and silicone rubber seal means between edges of said cement slabs.
 5. An ice rink as described in claim 4 wherein said asbestos-cement slabs include: heat exchanging ribs carried on the underside thereof and projecting downwardly into heat exchanging relation with refrigerated air in a said hollow space.
 6. An ice rink as described in claim 5 including: means associated with at least some of said pillars and operable to selectively adjust the height thereof.
 7. An artificial ice rink comprising: a plurality of support means embedded in and projecting upwardly from foundation means; side wall means peripherally encircling a hollow space occupied by said support means; slab means carried by said support means and cooperating with said wall means to define said hollow space disposed beneath said slab means; and refrigerating means inserted through and connected with said wall means and operable to circulate air within said space consecutively through an air refrigerating heat exchanger portion of said refrigeration means and through said space; said support means of said refrigeration unit comprising pillars inserted into soil providing said foundation means, with said pillars being inserted at least as deep as the anticipated freezing line in said soil. 